Chapter 4

I woke up in the morning with a start, I had very vivid dreams last night but it wasn't a lesson with the probe. They were scenes of a desert palace and my view was as if I was there and I was being tortured and raped and so were the others near me I woke up when I heard a blood curdling scream that scared the shit out of me, I looked around but I was still in the hospital room and Dona was sitting up watching some morning kids show on her television.

She was now looking at me and I just said "sorry bad dream, oh and good morning" I read in her mind that I had missed breakfast and my uncle was coming to pick me up at eleven it was now nine.

"Well you missed breakfast again but I suppose it doesn't really matter since you're leaving today" Amanda said as she entered the room causing Dona to start crying I jumped out of bed and went over and sat on Donna's bed and pulled her into my arms and she just buried her head in my chest and sobbed I said "hey what's wrong darling its ok I'll come and visit you and I'll be here to personally escort you out of here when they let you go, shhhh " I whispered to her while stroking her head and back but she still didn't stop sobbing so I did the one thing that usually works best, I put my hand under her chin and kissed her on the lips.

The simple kiss quickly heated up as her tongue came out and probed me for a way into my mouth. Being a gentleman I let it in to explore and play with my tongue and mine to explore and play with hers the kiss lasted for what felt like hours but in reality we finally had to come up for air after a few minutes. "Do you mean it, you'll come and see me? And be here when I go home?" she said when we finally recovered "of course I mean what I said I never go back on my word if I say I'm going to do it no matter what, and you know that even though I just met you I already love you".

We sat there for an hour just enjoying the closeness of the embrace neither one of us wanting the moment to end. Kissing one last time I said I had to get up and have a shower. "I love you too" Dona said as I turned to head for the shower; I had a quick shower and looked at myself in the full length bathroom mirror before dressing. My face looked the same, but all my acne had cleared, looking at my body it seemed the same but noticeably more toned and muscular I got dressed thinking that I would need to find a place to test my limits without hurting or being seen by other people; perhaps the forest would work.

I walked out of the bathroom clean and refreshed to find Uncle Ted waiting for me. He said "good morning Ray are you ready to get out of here?" I was, he had already signed the release papers so I walked over and kissed Dona one more time. When I had caught my breath, we walked out by the nurses' station and said goodbye to them. I gave the head nurse a message for Amanda with the house number, my cell and our address.

They insisted it was hospital policy for me to use a wheelchair to get to the door so I hopped in and one of the nurses pushed me while Ted went ahead to get the car. By the time we made it to the entrance he was there waiting for me. I jumped out of the chair kissed the nurse goodbye and got into Ted's ford falcon wagon and we sped off leaving a blushing nurse behind.

As they drove Uncle Ted said that he was taking me to the office/training centre because Mary didn't want him home alone

"I've been thinking about what I saw at the hospital and the talk we had after about you saying you had other powers and abilities that you weren't sure about yet. One of them wouldn't happen to involve the mind would it? It seems that I am unable to tell anyone about you, not even Mary" he deadpanned.

I was glad that I had been reading him and searching for minds that came into range, the number of which were starting to overwhelm my senses, I was just about to put up my shield when he spoke. At the same time I felt abject terror and tried to zero in on it but it disappeared before I could, so I turned to Ted and spoke. 'You are smarter than I thought, yes I do have the power to alter minds but the only thing I did to you was make it so you couldn't accidentally tell anyone that doesn't already know. I know you wouldn't do anything to hurt me on purpose, but one slip to the wrong person in a moment of weakness and the government would be after me for experiments' I thought to him and he screamed and almost crashed the car but I used my TK to grab the wheel and pull us to the side of the road.

We sat there in silence for ten minutes before he spoke "well son I trust you and I think that if anyone had to get these powers I'm glad it was someone like you. I know you'll do the right thing and I'm honoured that you trust me enough not to just wipe my memory of the event "he said in a much calmer voice than I thought it would be. I chalked it up to his military training and service but he was still scared that I would now wipe his memory.

To put his mind at ease I said "no worries I won't mess with your mind any more than I already have and to tell the truth I don't think that right now I could do it without causing additional harm to the subject" which was true. The lesson in the dreams only talked about general mind control and alteration techniques and how to interface with the mind, I would have to learn the specifics as he went and hoped I didn't screw someone up although I knew most changes could be reversed.

The explanation calmed him down and they were soon at the Guardian Security headquarters and training centre in Dewood California. It was huge, sitting on 20 acres of land in the centre of town, it provided a meeting point for Guardian employees and operatives as well as a training centre for new recruits.

Guardian Security is part private security and part private military company sanctioned by the United Nations they have can handle anything from providing security for people and events to supplement a countries armed forces as mercenaries. That included rescue and recovery operations both at home and overseas, my father Shawn started it with just him and Ted and over ten years grew it in to one of the largest security firms in the world. When my dad, mum and sister died in the terrorist attack on the their hotel in Dubai two years ago Ted took over and would remain in charge until I was old enough to take over for him.

I was ten when my dad first brought me here and said that I could start taking the training courses they offered I wasn't really motivated at first but after my family's death I immersed myself in the training so much so that I had barely passed year six in my Australian schooling.

They had moved there to be closer to his mother's family when her father got sick with prostate cancer. I had spent the major portion of his school life in the Australian education system but was confident I would be able to adjust, they had decided to let me stay and finish my two remaining years of primary education before I moved in with his aunt and uncle In the states.

When I arrived at the airport on Saturday the 5th of August 2020 and saw that all of the family in the US had come to meet me I felt it was the first time I belonged somewhere in almost three years, I had only been in the states for three weeks when I received my powers. My reverie was broken when Ted called my name "well Ray I have to make some calls and do some paperwork you should go see Gregory some martial arts will be good for getting all those bed kinks out, it's the best thing, first thing in the morning".

So I went down to gym/dojo for a workout I got there just as a beginners class was starting the teacher Greg spotted me and motioned for me to join him.

"Ray are you feeling, ready to get back to some training? You know the school has asked me to run a martial arts club for them and I wanted to ask if you would join and help me. You are one of my best students, in the month you have been here you have faced and beaten most of the other guys, and they are mostly ex-military. Will you join my class today and teach these new guys a lesson? Some of them are too cocky and none of them knows who you are. You can have some fun, just don't make me call an ambulance ok".

I told him I was fine, grinned at him and told him I would love to join the class, I had been scanning the group from the moment they walked in and Greg was right about one thing. They were a cocky group most were fresh from the service.

Two in particular were the worst, Matt and Jake were brothers from Boston and had both been in the Seals before a tryst with the daughter of a general had landed Jake in hot water, so he decided to get the hell out of Dodge and quit, Matt followed. They had heard that Guardian was the best mercenary outfit around so they came down and signed up.

Matt was 28 years old 6'1 and 210 lbs of muscle with dark hair and grey eyes while Jake was 25 5'11 and 180 lbs they were both starting their second week of the probation period all new employees have to go through but didn't think they needed to prove themselves to anyone else, 'well we will just have to see about that' I thought to myself and with a small smile towards Greg I took a place with the group and began stretching.

All of them were staring at me like I was from Mars and of course it was one of the denial brothers Matt who spoke "Greg what's with the kid he isn't supposed to be here, what is going on it's too dangerous" he said in a purebred voice the rest voicing their agreement. Just then Uncle Ted walked in and had heard the last of it and looked at me questionably "what's too dangerous?".

Greg told him what happened "well" said Ted "that kid happens to be one of the best fighters around here, want to test that theory?" Ray said in a confrontational voice before anyone could say anything else, I added "I'll take on, you and your brother over there too just to make it almost fair" in the same tone. They both nodded their acceptance and people had started to gather around to watch. We faced each other and bowed, at Greg's signal the game was on, they were both going to use kid gloves just to teach me a lesson.